New Hope Foundation Zimbabwe
Gender-based violence (GBV) violates child rights as well as human rights and affects the sexual and reproductive health (SRHR) of all human beings. Widely prevalent and socially silenced in most African countries, GBV is increasingly recognized as a major public health concern in the region.
GBV restricts the choices and decision-making of those who experience it, curtailing their rights across their life cycle to access critical SRHR information and services.
GBV, SRHR & CHILD HUMAN RIGHTS
Gender inequality and discrimination against girls mean they are often robbed of the right to make their own life decisions - from what happens to their bodies, to when and to whom they marry.
​
Teenage pregnancy can rob girls of their potential by ceasing their education and giving them adult responsibilities. An estimated 18 million adolescent girls give birth every year.
Ensuring girls’ and young women realise their right to sexual and reproductive health and have control over their lives and bodies are critical to achieving gender equality.
​
We work with partners around the world to enable access to quality sexual health services and eliminate harmful practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and child early and forced marriage.
​
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are human rights!
Sexual and reproductive health and rights are fundamental human rights that are related to sexuality and reproduction. These rights allow people to make informed and meaningful decisions about their own sexual wellbeing, such as their sexual orientation, relationships, sexual activity, family planning or their bodies. Knowing your rights is important to have good sexual and reproductive health.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights are particularly important to young people because it is their right to have access to the correct information and services to positively influence their sexual health and future lives.
​
Check out your Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights:
-
The right to equality
-
The right to participation
-
The right to life and to be free from harm
-
The right to privacy
-
The right to personal autonomy and to be recognised as an individual before the law
-
The right to think and express oneself freely
-
The right to health
-
The right to know and learn
-
The right to choose whether or not to marry or have children
-
The right to have your rights upheld
As we said before, sexual and reproductive health and rights are human rights and human rights are rights that every single human being on earth is born with, for example the right to education, the right to health services or the right to choose your partner…
The basic values and international standards of human rights are written in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. which is signed by 192 countries.
​
What is Gender-based Violence?
​
Gender-based violence (GBV) is violence that is directed at an individual based on his or her biological sex OR gender identity. It includes physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse, threats, coercion, and economic or educational deprivation, whether occurring in public or private life.
​
New Hope Foundation Zimbabwe has been active in carrying out activities on GBV awareness around Zimbabwe, and is a member of the International Gender Based Violence Coalition.
​
Why do we talk about GBV?
​
Gender-based violence is an issue faced by people all over the world. Women are disproportionately harmed by gender-based violence. That is why hundreds of organizations focus on ending violence against women and this affects children.
According to the United Nation’s Population Fund, 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexualized violence in their lifetime. That is not including emotional, financial, or verbal abuse. Despite being so prevalent, gender-based violence is largely under-reported because of stigma and lack of access to resources and support systems.
​
GBV can impact anyone regardless of their geographical location, socio-economic background, race, religion, sexuality, or gender identity. While women and girls are most at risk and most affected by gender-based violence, boys, men, and sexual and gender minorities also experience gender-based violence. GBV can have serious physical, mental, economic, and social repercussions. For example: Sexualized violence can lead to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and STI transmission, as well as isolation and depression.
It can also prevent survivors from achieving economic prosperity because of stigma or physical and psychological trauma caused by the violence.
​
The prevalence of gender-based violence worldwide is largely due to systemic gender inequality that disempowers women, girls, and other minorities, and stifles their voices so that their stories are not heard and their natural human rights can be more easily taken away.
The cycle of violence is further perpetuated by lack of justice, a dearth of available resources, or lack of economic opportunities which leads to the survivor being dependent on the abuser. For example, in the United States only six percent of rapists are likely to face incarceration and perpetrators of honor-killing around the world are rarely persecuted. This allows violent groups and individuals to continue abusing their power without fear of repercussions.
​
SRHR
Of the 1.6 billion women of reproductive age in the developing world, an estimated 66 million are at high risk of STIs, including HIV, and need prevention information, education and services.1 Nearly 14 million women of reproductive age are living with HIV, including 11.6 million in Sub-Saharan Africa. The global expansion of access to antiretroviral therapy has changed the course of the AIDS epidemic. Still, although just over two-thirds of women living with HIV need antiretroviral therapy, a large proportion (48%) of women living with HIV do not receive it. 

​
We work to support the girl child, support our work and change the world.
GBV
There are many forms of GBV that have been challenged as traditions in certain communities.
Whether it is early marriages in certain U.S. communities, rape in South Africa and other countries around the world, trafficking of persons in India, sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, femicide in Guatemala, female genital mutilation in Nigeria, so-called honor killings in Iraq or Pakistan, there is no justification for violence.
​
​
We work to support young women to understand GBV in their homes and communities
